rewind special:part one by tim parks page 45 38 years ago ... · rewind special:part one by tim...

rewind special:part one by tim parks paGe 45

38 years ago: the stones apply for league membership.. & win a place in the folklore of the anglo-italian tournamentSome extraor-

dinary things were happening

to our club in the January of 1978.

The Wealdstone Raider has put the club in the public eye now, but 38 years ago we were being talked about for purely football reasons... Alan Fogarty’s side had reached the Third Round of the FA Cup; chairman David martle decided to put the Stones forward for Football League membership; and then, on the back of all that public-ity, the organisers of the Anglo-Italian non-League tournament wanted the Stones to represent england (along with heavyweights Bath, maidstone, Nuneaton, minehead and Bangor City) that summer.

even Gordon Hill would struggle to elevate the club’s profile any higher!

Little has been written about the Stones’ one and only competitive venture abroad but now, thanks to Wealdstone’s No.1 fan in Italy, matteo Tonna, we have unearthed press cuttings from Udinese, Paganese, Reggiana and Arezzo, the four clubs we faced almost four decades ago.

Thanks to those, plus the

original tournament magazine and snippets from our local press and programme, we have managed to piece together how the Stones performed both at Lower mead and abroad.

When I was a lad growing up in the 1960 and 70s, the Anglo-Italian

tourney (then for bigger pro clubs) was in its infancy and filled an awkward football-free gap in may and June.

Apparently it started when 3rd Division clubs QPR and Swindon won the Football League Cup in the space of three years but weren’t allowed to claim a place in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (the

europa League of its day) because of their ‘lowly status’.

This was clearly wrong. Gigi Peronace, Italian football’s equivalent of Sir Trevor Brooking, exerted his renowned charm and bonhomie and arranged a two-legged ‘compensation’ game for Swindon - and so Don Rogers & Co found themselves playing Italian Cup winners AS Roma.

In the summer of 1970, with the clubs wanting to gener-ate some income in the extended close

season (caused by the mexico World Cup) Peronace or-ganised the first tournament with six english and six Italian clubs competing on a group basis.

The best placed english club - Swindon Town - faced the best placed Italians - Napoli in the final payed in Naples... but the spectre of niggling fouls and outright violence erupted that day with Swindon 3-0 ahead in the second half. The game was abandoned with 11 minutes to play, but the Robins were rightly declared inaugural winners.

I remember TV screenings of the games, very exciting in those days of sporadic coverage, and Continued overpage

The glossy handbook produced for the tournament

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Blackpool won the 1971 tourna-ment. The seasiders were then beaten by the first Italian winners, Roma, in ‘72, with Newcastle lift-ing the trophy in ‘73.

With interest dwindling, Peronace (a keen amateur player in his day) was the driving force behind the tournament switching to the non-League game. With Italy having just two professional divisions, Serie A and B, the standard of Serie C clubs was extremely high... and the english non-Leaguers suffered accordingly.

Wimbledon, under Allen Bats-ford, were the first english finalists as the tournament restarted in 1976. Again it was the top english

club on a group basis v the top Italian club, with the final staged in Italy, and monza beat the Dons 1-0.

Bath City were beaten finalists in ‘77 and ‘78 (the one season the Stones competed) and the competition lasted right through until 1986 with Sutton United be-ing the sole english winners when they beat Chieti 2-1 in 1979.

It seems strange that the Stones were never invited back, especially as english

non-League football’s double winners in 1985. But perhaps when you read of the on-field clashes and strained atmosphere in some of the games in that period, perhaps Bowgett, Byatt

and Lee Holmes (not to mention Vinny Jones) were better off staying at home....

Because of the wealth of material we’ll be splitting this Rewind feature across two issues: today’s and the Gosport programme on February 21. So don’t miss that one!

Today we start with the Stones first two games of the 1978 tournament: a Wednesday evening clash with middle-rank-ing Serie C outfit Paganese.... and then the explosive easter Satur-day clash with runaway leaders Udinese, who now rival Juventus, milan, Lazio and Inter as one of the country’s biggest clubs.Continued overpage

Alan Clarke stoops to head the first and Sutton”s dreams were quickly fading...

The Stones are profiled in the of-ficial handbook with perhaps the most bizarre team line-up picture I’ve ever seen! This was taken in the dressing room after the win over Reading in the FA Cup 2nd round

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Wednesday, March 22 1978: Wealdstone 4 Paganese 2THeRe was barely a mention of this game in the Harry o or, indeed, the Wealdstone programme the follow-ing week.

It was described by Chairman Da-vid martle as ‘a sporting and highly entertaining affair’ with young debutant striker matt Waymark (a product of the Stones youth team)the stand-out performer. Pat Ferry had shot the Stones ahead only for Lanucci to equalise. Bobby moss made it 2-1, Sylvestri again levelling before late goals from centre-back Dave Parratt and Waymark sealed a

Continued overpage

Below: The line-ups for both of the Anglo-Italian games staged at Lower Mead in March 1978

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The report from the regional newspaper covering Paganese FC, translated by Matteo Tonna below

4-2 win. Yet the Paganese Press were less impressed by our performance.

Here, Matteo Tonna translates the interviews with the Italian players and manager...

“WE GAVE A FOOTBALL LESSON” ‘THe match versus Weald-stone is just finished. Paganese players are still having their showers.

Said manager Settem-brini: “Paganese played an excellent match and the result could have gone our way. The final score does not reflect what the two teams showed on the pitch. I believe we confirmed our recent good form. We gave a football lesson, especial-ly in the first half when we played a very open and varied pattern. I was strongly impressed by the will to win my team showed even when they were losing - an attitude we will need to have also in the league”.

Team trainer professor Luciano moca has the same feelings: “We do not have to be worried by the last ten minutes of the match as the team had the clear order not to try too much. We must remember that our priority this season is to finish in the top twelve in the table”

(Note: at the end of the 1977-78 season Italian football would be restructured with the third division being divided into “new” third and fourth divisions. Only the top 12 teams in Serie C would maintain their Third Division status.. and Paganese did indeed manage to finish tenth).

“This tournament main purpose is keeping the team in the good form they recently showed”.

Di Giaimo played a very good

game and he cannot swallow defeat: “I was sure we could and should have won, especially after the first half. You have seen the match from the press box yourself: in the first twenty minutes alone we could have scored four times. I had a good opportunity myself, but I missed it because of the bad conditions of the pitch. The Wealdstone keeper Cranstone made a fantastic save at the beginning of the match to deny my shot.”

Paganese keeper Gianni Simo-nelli: “The floodlights were far from perfect and it was difficult to follow the ball’s trajectory. oh, and the first goal had to be disal-lowed because Ferry was clearly off-side”.

Last but not least, club chairman marcello Torre: “Apart from the match itself, I wish to underline the great hospitality showed to us by Wealdstone F.C. directors. Also a big thank you to all the Italians fans here tonight who supported Paganese for the whole 90 minutes”.

Another report of the same game is headlined:

IANNUCCI AND ROSSI HIT; DISTRACTED DEFENCE RUINS EVERYTHING

“Paganese lose their first match in London by 4-2 versus Wealdstone, after a very open game played with great fair-play by both teams. The blues (Paganese) answered with no fear to the locals, conducting a very offensive play: all this added to a very entertaining match for home supporters in a wet and at times rainy night.

Goal opportunities were numerous (10 or 11) and evenly divided on both fronts. After a 1st minute great save by Simonelli, Paganese nearly scored on 2nd, 4th and 16th minutes. excellent in this spell were Iannucci and Silvestri, the latter deserving praises and applauses from the home supporters for his flair and technically gifted play. Paganese, attacking also with Patalano and Di Giaimo, never gave up trying to Continued overpage


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be as offensive as possible. Goalkeeper Cranstone was called to save very strong shots by Iannucci and Silvestri. The same Silvestri was fouled just outside the box when running alone towards the goalkeeper.

Then it was the turn of the home side to counter attack and on 26th minutes forward Duck, a player of national fame, shot just over the bar. one minute later came the first goal of the game when Ferry took a cross from Briscoe to score from a dubious off-side position.

It only took three minutes to Paganese to draw, thanks to an-effort by Iannucci which was openly applauded by the sporting home supporters. Patalano started on midfield, then the ball went to Silvestri who passed through to Iannucci: he beat three players be-fore slotting the ball home on the right of the Wealdstone keeper.

At this point of the match Paga-nese were convinced to be able to take home the two points and on 43rd minutes they had a golden op-portunity to score: Silvestri stealed

a ball to Parratt on midfield then went down the left wing before passing to left-footed Rossi in the middle of the box. His shot was rebounded off Thomas again to Silvestri who missed an absolute sitter. Lack of experience, they call it!

off to the second half and there were immediately bad news for the men of Settem-brino. Following a corner by Brinkman, Parratt all alone in the middle of the box scored Weald-stone second goal with a header who found no opposition by defenders and goalkeeper alike.

After going down again, Set-tembrino and his men did not want to surrender and the score was level again on 59th minutes: after a quick run by Zana from the midfield down to the right wing, the ball went to Silvestri, to Giurini and then again to Rossi who scored from the heart of the box with a powerful shot. 2-2 now. After 3 minutes Rossi again missed an easy chance and soon Paganese found themselves from a possible 3-2 up to 3-2 down. It

was in the 77th minutes when Wealdstone scored their third goal: on the left wing Brinkman overtook Giurini before crossing the ball for moss who had no difficulties in putting the ball in the back of the net.

Seven minutes from time Wealdstone finally scored their fourth and last goals of the match: Waymark was found by a Boyle cross and scored with an easy header.

It was an unfair result, but after the last few minutes of the game, during which Pagan-ese tried their last chances, the stainless referee Clive White blew the end of the match amidst cheerful and enthusi-astic applauses by the chilled specta-tors in attendance.

Report by RINO CESARANO (for “Alé Paganese” magazine).

Unorthodox reporting but we love the reference to the ‘fair and sporting’ Lower mead crowd (!)Continued overpage

The Blues of Paganese, who are still competing in Serie C (or ‘Lega Pro Premiere Divisione’ ) after yo-yoing between step three and four of Italian football for the past few decades

rEwind sPEciAl

..and then we gave Udinese muddy kneesSaturday, March 26 1978: Wealdstone 0 Udinese 1Four days later the udinese bandwagon rolled into town. unlike Paganese, who looked fragile at the back (whether or not they were more interested in their own domestic league) udinese were clearly looking to carry on their success in Serie C by carrying off the Anglo-Italian trophy.

After getting a 1-1 draw in

midweek at Maidstone, this win at a squally Lower Mead almost guaranteed their place in the final. Indeed, they were the only Italian team to notch a victory on English soil... it was our bad luck to be grouped with the outstand-ing team in the competition.

Udinese were talented and tough. They didn’t like some of the tackles from

Willie Watson & Co on a wet and muddy surface, but the Italians

weren’t averse to giving a bit back! With udinese taking a 21st-minute lead through De Barnardi, the game erupted at one point in the second half with punches being thrown in the centre-circle as the players comically rolled around in a parody of a mud-wrestling competition.

Fortunately for referee Tom Bune, the tropical rainstorm gave him an excuse to take the players Continued overpage

The Udinese paper with its report from ‘London’. It also chronicles all the other Italian teams’ results

The Stones programme has a rather different take on the Udinese game....

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off the pitch and by the time they returned the spite had gone out of the game. We threatened the udinese goal just once when George Duck sprang their well-rehearsed offside trap but keeper Della Corna (in his grey Dino Zoff jersey) flew off his line to make a smothering save.

Matteo has translated for us a couple of the udine newspapers of the time, which were head-lined:

“UDINESE ARE THE ONLY TEAM WHO WIN”ThE Friulian side came to the rescue of Italian teams in the

tournament with a narrow but deserved win against Wealdstone. There was a draw for reggiana while the others are all defeated. reggiana had four play-ers sent-off and seven booked at Nuneaton.“WEALDSTONE (London) - You know how this kind of match begins, but you do not know how it may end. You may be the bet-ter side, both in terms of techni-cal ability and in playing patterns, but you don’t always manage to avoid defeat or, better still, to win just like udi-nese deservedly did yesterday after an incident-packed match.

“udinese superiority was not in doubt from the start, given the fact that manager Giacomini chosed to field the best available line–up (alternating De Bernardi in the first half and ulivieri in the second); that superiority soon allowed udinese to go 1-0 up thanks to a De Bernardi goal on the 21st minute.

Twice were the goalposts hit by udinese, then in the middle of the second half - when the match was firmly in the Italians’ hands even if Wealdstone were persist-ing (with No. 9 Ferry a Pruzzo lookalike, and the danger-Continued overpage

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ous left-wing Furphy) - a scuffle started in midfield: under the pouring rain and hail, punches and kicks were thrown.Bune, a valiant and athletic referee, tried to sedate things be-tween the players, but in a matter of minutes he was forced to stop the match due to the blinding hail which made play impossible. Some udinese players, not accus-tomed to this sort of situations, objected not realizing that it would just be a temporary stop.

“After a five-minutes suspen-sion, during which the dressing rooms offered shelter to players and officials, play restarted. Italian players reacted very well, especially given the extreme conditions of the waterlogged pitch, more suitable to the style of play of the home team. The quality that udinese showed yesterday is the reason why the black-and-whites are the only team to leave England with an unbeaten record after the first two matches of the tournament.”

AN INTERvIEW with Udinese players before the Liverpool tie in 2012 was all previous matches against English opponents. And of course they talk about Wealdstone! In particular it is mentioned that after a clash between the Italian keeper and the “Wealdstone centre-for-ward”, a lone Stones’ supporter tried to enter the pitch to tell the keeper what he thought of him and that policemen were

fortunately on hand to stop him doing just that.... (Rumour has it that one of our current stewards is the gentleman in question. You’ll have to ask Don Cross if he is related - Ed)

On this page and opposite: The powerful-looking Udinese team line up for their spread in the of-ficial handbook. They found Lower Mead a bit of a comedown from their own 30,000-capacity stadium!

Below: the report from the Udinese regional newspa-per a few yaers ago before they played Liverpool in the Champions League. They looked back on some past ‘battles’ against English clubs...

Next issue: Fun and games as the Stones perform in Italy...

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Alan Clarke stoops to head the first and Sutton”s dreams were quickly fading...

Continued overpage

rEwind sPEciAl PAGE 49

On this page and opposite: The powerful-looking Udinese team line up for their spread in the official handbook. They found Lower Mead a bit of a comedown from their own 30,000-capacity stadium

Continued overpage

rewind special:part twO the anglo-italian tournament, 1978

sun, sea, sand .. but not a lot of successtim parks looks back at the second part of the stones anglo-italian tournament adventure of 1978.last week we chronicled the home group games - the 4-2 win over paganese and the 0-1 defeat by Udinese - but now the focus turns to the June trips to italy...

THE BLUNT facts are that the Stones returned from the

club’s only-ever overseas jaunt with two defeats from the games at Reggiana and Arezzo. But it was far from unmemorable for the players, or for the supporters who made the 1,000-mile trip to Italy all those years ago.

George Duck, the club’s record goalscorer (and who was named as ‘a player of international repute’ by one Italian newspaper) can clearly recall the events - even if some of them have to be watered down for publication!

“It was a great, great trip. They were games played on balmy summer evenings. Maybe we viewed it as more of a holiday than a couple of serious matches, but it was terrific for team bonding and there were quite a few stories to come out of it....’ he said.

“As for the games, well to be honest they are a bit of a blur. We were playing big, well organised teams in big stadiums and they were taking no prisoners. It was a real

education for me. I was 25 or 26 then and hadn’t really played any overseas teams, apart from a pre-season trip to Russia when I was a kid at Southend United. I hadn’t seen anything quite like it before: My game was all about making space in the pen-alty box and losing defenders when they were watching the ball but the Italians wouldn’t give you a yard of room; they were holding you, grabbing you,

even spitting at you, and they never looked at the ball - they were just looking at you. Right into your eyes! It made it very difficult. We had players who could look after themselves but you could see why the England team had problems against Italy. It was just the way they played.

“I think we lost both games.. was it 1-0 and 2-0?’ he asked. ‘Yes,but you had a penalty Continued overpage

Above: George Duck, now a dapper 63 year-old, with Tim Parks at the ‘George & Willie” lunch last season

Map in the Anglo-Italian handbook, showing the location of the competing clubs

rewind special contd.... saved in the last minute of the second game at Arezzo’ I told George. ‘Did I?’ he exclaimed. ‘I can’t remem-ber that at all. Maybe I’ve wiped out that memory!”

‘But I do remember com-ing out to look around the stadium at Reggiana when we first arrived, and there were shouts and waving coming from a hotel room overlooking the pitch. They were Wealdstone fans! But I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised - Stones fans have always been brilliant, wherever and whenever we were playing.’

So what were the stories behind that trip, I asked George. “Well, we were well looked after by the club. We flew to Pisa airport and did some sightseeing there, the leaning tower and everything, and were put up in Viareggio, on the coast. We were a bit boister-ous though, a group of lads on a football tour - and I don’t suppose this has ever come out but two of our players, Steve Brinkman and Bobby Finch, were arrested for a bit of high jinks on a balcony. I won’t go into details. The police were called and I think they were detained over-night. The manager Alan Fogarty went mad!

“A couple of our lads picked up some Italian birds too. Sex on the beach! Again, no names and no pack drill. So I suppose the football took a bit of a back seat under those circumstances... but it was a great trip, the only one I ever went on to play competitive games’

NIck Symmons, the Stones’ former chair-

man and a fan for 45 years, recalls... ‘‘Me, Rob Bayley and Martin and Janet Ball (occasional support-ers in the 70s) were

going to have a short holiday in Weymouth - we didn’t have any money - but decided it would be much more fun to try to travel to Italy on the cheap using European Inter Rail cards.

“When we came out of the station in Reggio d’Emelia we headed towards the football ground and saw a hotel right on the corner, backing onto the stadium. Some rooms in the hotel actually overlooked the pitch, so in our broken Italian we neogotiated for one of these... and were up on the balcony, having drinks, as the Wealdstone team arrived to have a look around the stadium. They

were pretty shocked to us up above, waving and shouting encouragement!

“The after-game meal hosted by Reggiana was at our hotel which we gatecrashed, and I later spent a lot of the evening talking to Jimmy McVeigh (our cultured fullback) .

“There was also a father and son who went, having won a club competition to go to Italy. I believe the father is one of the guys who is honoured by having a game sponsored in his memory by Ron Moore and pals.

“The other silly point was that I pulled an Italian girl at a Continued overpage

Poster boys: George Duck in action (left) and supporter Steve Paul (above right) inaction as he poses with posters outside the Reggiana stadium

View of Reggiana’s ground from the hotel balcony (left) and Arezzo’s concrete construction (right)

rewind special contd.... disco in Rimini whilst posing as George Duck! I even had a sweatshirt with George’s name embroiderered on the front!

“I stayed in Rimini for the next night and day while Martin, Rob and Janet went to Venice.. we all returned together at the end of the week.

Another long-time fan, Steve Paull, recalls: I drove to Italy with Ray ‘Bonker’ Bennison, another occasional fan, and had no idea Nick, Rob, Martin and Janet would be coming separately. We didn’t know they were in Italy until we saw them waving from the balcony. Our accomoda-tion wasn’t quite as luxurious: We camped, or slept in the car which rather cramped Ray’s style. He was a bit of a lothario in England but Italian women didn’t seem to go for someone who was effectively sleeping rough’

OUR man in Italy, Matteo Tonna, has come up trumps by translating

the match reports (above right) from the two games. They read as follows.... REGGIO EMILIA – Reg-giana won scoring just one goal despite dominating the match, especially in the first half during which they had many opportu-nities to score. Reggiana fielded a ‘baby’ line-up , playing with just three recognized first teamers and several reserves, but the match has been very interesting nonetheless with the locals always trying offensively. All in all Reggiana played very well and it was only down to the excellent performance of the English keeper cranstone that they failed to score in at least five occasions.

Wealdstone, always on the receiving side in the first 45 minutes, were more effec-tive up front in the second half when they tried hard to draw only to be stopped by a very attentive defence and

keeper Piccoli. Every one of the Reggiana players contributed positively to win the game, in particular the three forwards Romano, Mossini e Bertoni, together with Gasperini (who is now he’s the manager at Genoa Fc), Reverberi, cattelani, Maiani,

Marlia and Piccoli.The only goal of the match

was scored on 32nd minutes of the first half. Bertoni on the attack crossed deep to Romano who hit a low shot which beat-cranstone from just outside of the box. - Guglielmo Fanticini

(published by “La Gazzetta dello Sport”).

AREZZO – The amaranths say bye-bye to their sup-porters with another win. In doing so, they redeem themselves in the Anglo-Italian Tournament after the poor results obtained in the matches played in England.

It hasn’t been a particu-larly good match, especially the first half, mainly because the two teams were already eliminated from the fight to be top of the table and to qualify for the final. Arezzo took the opportunity to give Continued overpage

How’s your Italian? Reports from the Reggiana and Arezzo games. At least we can translate the Stones line-ups!

Stones’ Italian Super Fan Matteo Tonna, pictured (left) presenting Mark Harrison with an award on the occasion of the last game at Lower Mead in April 1991

rewind special contd....


many youngsters some first-team experience: it’s only been a pity that the supporters snubbed again this tournament.

In the second half the play juiced up a little bit thanks to the home team, while the visitors kept on playing in a rambling and inef-fective manner. On 25th minutes, after having dominated the game, Arezzo went 1-0 up thanks to Ghiandai – a very young and good prospect – who was found by a nice Pasquali cross.

On 33rd minutes the second goal. From the right wing Marini passed to in-form Butelli who scored with a lo shot. On the last min-ute of the match a penalty was awarded to Wealdstone for an obvious handball by Quercioli: Duck took it but Giuliani was excellent again and saved it.

- Carlo Brandini Dini (pub-lished by “La Gazzetta dello Sport”).

Note: Goakeeper Giuliano Giuliani was at the beginning of his career. He subsequently went on to win one UEFA cup medal and one Italian Serie A cham-pionship with Napoli (playing alongside Maradona, careca et all….) and represented Italy at the 1988 Olympics. He tragically died of AIDS in 1996.

The ‘scoreboard’ picture (above) shows how the whole tournament panned

out. The games in England weren’t hugely popular, with only Bath and Nuneaton drawing

close to 1,000 crowds (I believe our home gates v both Italian sides were only around the 600 mark) but in Italy Udinese had 2,000 for their 4-0 win over Minehead and 5,000 for the 3-1 beating of closest challengers Bath.

Those two teams met again in the Final, four days later, again at Udinese’s ground, with the Italians slaughtering the Romans 5-0 this time in front of another crowd recorded as ‘5,000 plus’.. probably more ingenious accounting as a Bath fan who was there reckoned the 30,000-capacity stadium was nearly half full!

Udinese had won Serie c (Division Three) by a street, and went on to win Serie B the following season... establishing

themselves a a major power in the top division amongst the Milan clubs, Juventus, Roma and Napoli and Lazio.

Just imagine if the Stones were playing in Italy this summer!

We had just eleven fans travelling independently in 1978. How many would make the trip nowadays? There was certainly little hullabaloo at the end of the 77-78 season, just a few good luck messages to ‘the lads who are headed to Italy in June’.

These days there would be months of planning and anticipa-tion (Jez Tours special - what a climax) and at least 100 making the journey. In fact, with no World cup or Euros this summer I reckon you could prob-ably double that number!


The hastily-scribbled scoreboard in the tournament handbook....

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..and also in italy were this little lot COMPLETING the small (but perfectly formed) complement of Stones fans in Italy was a minibus comprising SFC Weald-stone players (from left to right) Duncan Towell, Mark Chamber-lain, Dave ‘The Dog’ Thomas, Kevin Bright and Dave Heath. And on this page, their exploits were recounted in the Weald-stone Supporters magazine ‘Long Ball Down the Middle’....

rewind special:part one by tim parks page 45 38 years ago ... · rewind special:part one by tim...

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